Google Android is now well ahead of Apple's iOS for iPhone in the race for market share in mobile operating systems, new data released Thursday showed.

Android's total U.S. share for June came in at 39%, compared to 28% for Apple, according to data compiled by market watcher Nielsen. RIM's BlackBerry OS was in third place with 20% of the market. Meanwhile, Microsoft's fledgling Windows Phone 7 operating system, along with the remnants of the Windows Mobile OS, picked up 9% of the total market.

Android's gains appeared mostly to come at the expense of RIM. Android's share was up 8.3%, compared to April, while RIM's share fell 13%. iOS's share was up 7.6% over the same period.

Apple was number one in one category measured by Nielsen, however--hardware. Steve Jobs' company owned 28% of the handset market.

"Because Apple is the only company manufacturing smartphones with the iOS operating system, it is clearly the top smartphone manufacturer in the United States," Nielsen officials said, in a blog post.

HTC grabbed 20% of the hardware market, as did RIM, followed by Motorola (11%), and Samsung (10%).

Nokia, which Microsoft is counting on to boost sales of Windows Phone 7 when it introduces devices based on the OS later this year, held just 2% of the U.S. market, a number that may not instill too much confidence in Redmond.

HP, which is moving exclusively to its own WebOS software for its lineup of smartphones, also held 2%. HP acquired WebOS through its $1.2 billion buyout of Palm last year. Google does not make its own handsets for Android.

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